Emoji reactions and mentions are coming to Facebook Messenger

Facebook is looking to spice things up for Messenger users with a couple of fun upcoming features. Rolling out starting today, Facebook is introducing both emoji-based message reactions and @mentions in Messenger. As usual, both features are likely hitting Android and iOS first, but they should make their way to the Windows 10 PC and Mobile app in short order.

With message reactions, you'll be able to express how you feel about a particular message with an emoji. Think attaching a "love" emoji to a picture someone shares of their cute pet. All you'll have to do is press and hold any message then select from love, smile, wow, sad, angry, yes and no emojis to pin to it. It's essentially the same as adding a reaction to a typical Facebook post, just in messenger. It's a shame that there aren't more emoji to choose from, but the ones available should cover most cases.

Mentions are potentially a much more useful addition, especially if you find yourself in a lot of group chats. All you have to do is use the "@" symbol in a message followed by a person's name, and they'll get a different kind of notification that lets them know they were specifically called out. That can come in handy for group chats with a bunch of participants.

As mentioned, these two features are rolling out now, and are likely to hit other platforms first. However, Facebook has been fairly good about keeping Messenger updated, so we should see reactions and mentions hit messenger on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile soon.